1899] A GOOD OLD-FASHIONED THURSDAY. 289 



they crossed the Bentley-Cubley road about halfway between Bentley Hall and 

 the brook at the bottom of the hill, and, bearing right-handed still, ran by Ciibley 

 Cottage farm to ground in a large rabbit-burrow in the orchard at Stydd Hall. 

 A bright twenty-two minutes, which might have developed into a good run if 

 only our fox had not found a refuge, as there was quite a scent. An attempt was 

 made to dislodge him, but, after digging for about twenty minutes, the game w^as 

 found to be not worth the candle, and the hounds went home. 



Tuesday dawned more like a " red March morn " than a Febniary fill-dyke 

 one, and warned us that the evil days of glaring suns, cold winds, and hard 

 ground are upon us. Never mind. Hope whispers a flattering tale. Hounds 

 can run under all and any conditions, and who knows that a travelling fox or two 

 may not set hounds and horses galloping best pace with a burning scent, even 

 though pastures be dry and though fallows be baked and dusty, before the 

 summer of our discontent is upon us. It has happened before now, and may do 

 so again, so let us even take heart of grace and hope for 



" A merry March when east winds blow, and suns are hot and glaring. 

 And everybody's nose is cold, and visage flushed and staring." 



But what of to-day at Thatched Lodge ? Well, " what is life, with all it grants 

 us, but a hunting run," and to-day was life-like — a tangled skein of joy, hope, and 

 disappointment. How they did run up-\vind through the big wood, across the 

 open for a few fields pointing for Floyer's Coppice, right-handed, with Steve 

 capping and cheering them on, into Frame Wood. Up-Avind still, chiming and 

 clamouring, the dog hounds drove him straight for Buttermilk Hill. Dipping like 

 swallows down to the lower side, about opposite to Mr. Leason's picturesque 

 Louse, it looked for a moment as if our fox was away for Woodford again, but it 

 ■was not to be. A fresh one jumped up and led the main body of the pack best 

 pace down-wind for a few hundred yards parallel with the wood, and then turned 

 into it, when scent failed, and they lost him. Meanwhile the leading hounds, 

 after running a short distance up-wind, were stopped in Dog Kennel Wood. 

 Another fox was before long on foot, in the middle of Bagot's Wood, and they 

 ran well, at times, in much the same direction as before (without paying the 

 least attention to a herd of deer which ran the same line as the fox for a bit and 

 then diverged), and crossed over Buttermilk Hill into the Bank Top Wood, where 

 there seemed to be two or three lines, and both hounds and their followers got 

 scattered. It was a very bad hearing day, owing to a strong wind blowing half a 

 gale. Finally the hunt joined forces bj' Mr. Cottrell's house, and there was a 

 halloa away on the lower side below Marlpit House, which set every one slipping 

 and sliding down the steepest of steep rides to the bottom. But it all ended in 

 nothing, except the losing of the fox. They found again in Lord's Coppice, and 

 ran right through the woods, over the Uttoxeter- Abbots Bromley road, past 

 Heatley and Bagot's Bromley, to Dnckley Wood, and on to Blithe Moor, whence, 

 turning right-handed, they rolled over a gi-eat dog fox in Mr. Neighbour's garden. 

 They take some catching, these Staffordshire and Woodland foxes. So the day 

 began and ended well. 



Thursday, Sutton Mill. It froze so hard on Wednesday night that the 

 ground was not in a fit state for himting till twelve o'clock, nor would it have 

 been so then but for the sun having so much power. With a bright sun and 

 no wind the day was what old-fashioned sportsmen used contemptuously to style 

 " a washerwoman's day," but there was a verj'^ fair scent all the same, and, given 

 that, what does it matter what the weather is ? By the time these and similar 

 topics had been discussed, the frost had relaxed its grip sufficiently to allow of 

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